Thursday night local time (here in Indiana), England’s international cricket
team will attempt to do something only two other English teams have done: win a
Test match in Perth.
For my American friends who are new to cricket, this is something akin
to trying to take out the Boston Celtics in the old Boston Garden. It just
doesn’t happen often-at least, for England.
The pressure is so great for England to win because they have already
lost two Test matches in this five-match series. If they lose one more, they
will lose the Ashes series to Australia after three straight series wins.
You may very well say, “OK, Terry, everyone hates to lose, but surely
winning three in a row, and four out of the last five, is something to be proud
of? After all, you keep telling us this is like the Superbowl or World Series
for these two countries.”
There is some truth to that. England has done marvelously well over the
past few years … better than they had for quite some time. But, you see, this
is The Ashes. And making it even more of a bog deal right now is the manner in
which England has lost the first two Tests of the series. You see, they haven’t
even been close. There are many reasons
for this: England’s batsmen have been in poor form for some time, and their
problems all came to a head during this series; Australia fast bowler Mitchell
Johnson has had a superb series, bowling as well or better than he has in his
career; and Australia’s ramped-up intensity as they are determined to get back
to beating England again (previous to their recent woes, Australia regularly
bossed the Brits and, in fact, the rest of the cricketing world, and they have
been desperate to stop the losing slide).
There have been many critics putting in their two cents’ worth about
how England can get back into this series and have a chance to tie or win it.
There have been various suggestions to drop some batsmen because they are
afraid of fast bowling or unable to play it … and yet many of these same
batsmen have dealt with bowling at least as fast and as good as Johnson is
displaying. English Batsman Ian Bell has had very little trouble with Johnson because
he is A) in form and B) playing as he wants to, and not into how the Australians
and their media are trying to goad England into playing. Several of England’s
batsmen are having technical difficulties because they seem to be trying to
play in a way that isn’t best suited for them. It’s almost as if the pressure
of having won three Ashes in a row has them on edge, and more susceptible to
crumbling.
So my own two cents worth? Here it is, in five simple bullet points.
1-England must play its boring, slow-grinding game. Don’t play shots or
get aggressive. Stand there and duck and weave and defend and frustrate the
Australian bowlers. So what if they don’t like it? Um….that’s kind of the
point. They complain about it so much because it was working.
2-Bring in Tim Bresnan. Bresnan has been there, done that in Australia,
and seems to have a talismanic impact on the England dressing room. He gets
wickets when England needs them, and holds down the runs when they need that.
He can also bat.
3-Bring in Boyd Rankin. He seems to have something that the Australians
don’t like. He has done well against them in ODIs, and would do better than
either Finn or Tremlett.
4-Think about dropping spinner Graeme Swann and keeping Ben Stokes. Just think
about it. Not saying it’s a shoo-in. Stokes’ batting has been better than Swann’s
and Swann has been played well by the Australians. Perth probably won’t do him
any favors, although maybe the high heat will help. He is also a big help in the
dressing room, and can field, so this one is a 50/50 for me. One thing I would advise against: don't prefer Monty Panesar as spinner here. Monty is actually my favorite cricketer for pure enjoyment, but the prgmatist in me sees he would not do any better than Swann should England pick a spinner, and his fielding would be a detriment (just as it was in Adelaide, where he drop a catch that could have really put Australia under pressure to make a lot fewer runs than they did).
5-Remember, England: Don’t listen to the hype. Mitchell Johnson’s
success in Adelaide was mostly against the lower order, which was to be
expected. Whoever the bowler is, just play your game.
So there you have it. My ideas. Laugh if you like.
